Essential oils and back to homeschool

Today was our first day of homeschool for this year. My son's second year of school and my daughter's first year. Since it has been months since we sat down to any kind of "formal" learning environment, I prepared beforehand!  I applied vetiver, cedarwood, and lavender to their kids before we started. (I applied some on myself too! Mama needs calming and concentration help as well!) And I  also diffused cedarwood and lavender. That smelled wonderful!

All in all it was a pretty good first day, despite a few attitude issues that we need to work on. :) We will help address those issues with scripture, prayer, and probably a few other oils too.

How about you? What oils did you use for your kids first day back to school?

The diffuser with cedarwood and lavender helped create a calm atmosphere in our home!

Hard at work! :)

Some of our school work. We use Heart of Dakota for our curriculum. It is very scripture based and every day is easily planned out for you. I also like to add in other workbooks that you can buy at the dollar section in Target, or Walmart, the Dollar Tree, etc. My kids do well with workbooks right now.

Gary and Mary Young

While I was at the Young Living convention, I had the opportunity to listen to Gary Young speak several times. And even though I had read his story and background before, its not the same as hearing him talk about it. There are many details that he talks about that you won't read in print. And to hear him speak, and see his heart and passion, is very different than reading!

Let me first preface this by saying that I am not a "man follower".  I am very careful to not put any man (or woman) up on a pedestal. As a Christian, Christ is first and foremost in everything in my life. So I am always very careful to not elevate any human to a platform only reserved for Christ.

To see and listen to the man who founded this company over 20 years ago was a huge highlight for me as a distributor. Young Living is the oldest essential oil company in the industry. Gary Young is a pioneer in bringing truly pure, therapeutic grade oils to us for use in health and wellness. His own story of using the oils for his paralysis is amazing. And the many other ways they used the oils in their own family. He has a heart and passion for helping others, and that is the mission and drive behind what Young Living does and why they do it. They own 9 farms on 5 continents and have 14 partners in wildcrafting worldwide. And they are continuing to buy farm land and partner up with other farmers whose standards match that of Young Living. They do all this in order to maintain their high standard of integrity to be able to bring us oils that are grown in organic soil and using organic methods without compromise. And that is a truly important thing when you consider that our skin is the largest organ of our body. Everything we put on our skin is absorbed into our bloodstream. So we need to make sure that whatever we are using is truly organic and pure, or we can compromise our health.

I had an opportunity to say "hello" to Gary and Mary and have a photo taken with them. They are sweet folks and even though they were very busy and probably tired that week, they still took the time to have photos taken with the distributors.

If you would like to read a bit of Gary Young's story, you can find it HERE.

And there is more here at the D. Gary Young Foundation site.

Young Living's 20th anniversary convention 2014

I had the amazing opportunity to attend Young Living's convention this year! It was a week packed filled with lots of great information, listening to some great speakers, sampling new products, meeting my internet friends for the first time, connecting with other distributors, and visiting the lavender farm! And the amazing setting of the mountains in Utah made it even more enjoyable. I could not get enough of the incredible views everywhere I went! I am just going to share a bunch of photos with you to let you get a small glimpse of what our week was like. Sometimes photos can say a lot more than words!

Opening night party. Ningxia Red shots through a block of ice!

Outside the Salt Palace.

John Maxwell was one of the speakers, I really enjoyed him!

Seed to Seal is what sets Young Living apart from all other essential oil company's!!

I met Genevieve from Mama Natural!! I have followed her blog for years, so this was truly an honor for me!

Organic, gluten free, vegetarian restaurant in Salt Lake City. I ate there three times!!

This is why I ate there three times! Yummy!

See!! I would eat there all the time if we had a place like this in my town!

The members of the Common Scents Team who came to convention! We had a blast getting to know each other and spending time together all week!

Hanging out with Stacy McDonald at one of the general sessions. She is the leader of the Common Scents Team.

Farm day!!!!

Breathtaking views!!!

Lavender growing in the greenhouse ready to be planted!

That is snow on the mountain tops!

Smelling the lavender before we planted it. This was an amazing experience!!

My friend Clarinda and I planting our lavender! That is the look of pure bliss on our faces!

Did I mention the amazing views??

Cookers in the distillery.

And we have oil! I believe they were distilling juniper. Lavender was not ready for harvest yet.

So pretty, and the smell is captivating!

Gary Young is now growing ancient einkorn at the farms. It will be harvested in the Fall.

One of my favorite shots that Clarinda took of me in the lavender field.

One more view of the farm with the gorgeous mountains.

I stopped by the corporate office on my way back to Salt Lake City.

If you want to learn more about Young Living's Seed to Seal promise, please visit this site!

You can also follow my Facebook page to learn more tips and information about Young Living and their products!